Network positioning method and related equipment

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention discloses a network positioning method and related equipments, the method includes: receiving, by a user equipment (UE), positioning signals of at least three positioning nodes, where the at least three positioning nodes include at least one auxiliary UE, where the auxiliary UE is located within an end-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid position information of the auxiliary UE exists currently; measuring the positioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes, and acquiring a measurement result which comprises time difference of receiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes by the UE; calculating, a current position of the UE according to the measurement result and the valid position information of the at least three positioning nodes. The technical solution provided by the present invention can effectively enhance the network positioning precision.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Patent ApplicationNo. PCT/CN2013/071693, filed on Feb. 20, 2013, which claims priority toChinese Patent Application No. 201210038267.0, filed on Feb. 20, 2012,both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of communications and, inparticular, to a network positioning method and related equipments.

BACKGROUND

Currently, with unceasing development of mobile communicationtechnologies, the demand for positioning services is also increased dayby day. Application scenarios of the positioning services show adiversified trend, e.g., emergency position, crime location tracking,navigation, traffic control, etc. But, no matter how diversified theapplication scenarios are, the industry always hopes to acquire areliable, efficient and quick method for satisfying the positioningdemand, in other words, positioning technologies which are easy to beimplemented and of high precision are always the hot pursuit sought bypeoples.

Development of the global positioning system (GPS) enables a mobilestation having a GPS module to obtain an accurate positioning, however,disadvantages of the GPS are also relatively obvious; firstly, anaddition of the GPS module will necessarily increase the cost of themobile station, secondly, as a satellite positioning technique, the GPSis not suitable for scenarios of a high-density urban area (shaded bybuildings). Although the network positioning does not have a highaccuracy as the GPS positioning, it is more suitable for the scenariosof the high-density urban area. Hence, an algorithm combining the GPSpositioning and the network positioning is a focus of the currentresearch.

Currently, there are two network positioning schemes: one is an uplinktime difference of arrival (UTDOA) positioning method, the other is anobserved time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning method.

According to the UTDOA positioning method, a user equipment (UE) sendsan uplink positioning signal (e.g., a sounding reference signal (SRS),etc.), and an estimation of the arrival time of the uplink signal isperformed at an evolved node (eNB) side to obtain distance of the eNBand the UE. Thereby, distance between a plurality of eNBs and the UE isobtained; a relative coordinate position of the UE relative to the eNBsis obtained by calculating according to a triangulation algorithm andthe like, and then the network can obtain an absolute position of the UEaccording to actual positions of the eNBs. However, since the UTDOApositioning method adopts an estimation of the uplink positioning signalof the UE, it is restricted by the uplink transmit power of the UE;since the uplink transmit power of the UE is limited, the cover range ofthe positioning signal emitted by the UE is also limited, therefore, thenumber of the eNBs which performs the UTDOA positioning for the UE isrestricted and, thus, the positioning precision of the UTDOA isrestricted. Meanwhile, the UTDOA is also a positioning algorithm basedon an estimation of the signal arrival time, hence, if the positioningsignal is sheltered or reflected, the signal arrival time will beaffected, thereby affecting the positioning precision.

The principle of the OTDOA positioning method is that, when there arethree or more base stations existing in a system, position of a UE canbe determined according to time difference of arrival of downlinktransmission signals from different base stations. The downlinktransmission signals may be positioning reference signals, and may alsobe synchronization signals. As known from the definition of a hyperbola,the hyperbola is constituted by points satisfying the condition asfollowing: distance difference from the points to two specified pointsis a constant value. As shown in FIG. 1, in the system, there are a basestation 0, a base station 1 and a base station 2, assuming that theblack filled portion in FIG. 1 indicates the position of the UE, pointswhich satisfy that distance difference from the UE to the base station 0and the base station 1 is di-do form one hyperbola, and points whichsatisfy that distance difference from the UE to the base station 1 andthe base station 2 is d₂−d₁ form the other hyperbola, then, thecrossover point of the two hyperbolas is namely the position of the UE.The more the number of base stations existing in the system, the moreaccurately the determined position of the UE. In the LTE, the OTDOApositioning is used as a technique where the network assists thepositioning of the UE, at the network side, after an enhanced servingmobile location centre (e-SMLC) assigns transmit configuration andreceive configuration of a positioning reference signal (PRS) for a basestation and a mobile station, the base station sends the PRS to themobile station, after receiving the PRSs from a plurality of basestations, the mobile station recognizes the first arrival path positionof each of the PRSs and, thus, can obtain time difference of arrival ofthe PRSs among different base stations, and then report the timedifference to the e-SMLC. The e-SMLC can obtain the distance differencefrom the mobile station to different base stations according to thereceived time difference of arrival of the PRSs. By means of themathematical computation of the foregoing hyperbolic model, the e-SMLCcan obtain an accurate position of the mobile station. It is thus clearthat the precision of the OTDOA positioning is dependent on thereceiving of the PRS signals and the estimation of the first arrivalpath position to a great extent, therefore, in scenes of a dense urbanarea, the path of the PRS is not a straight path due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings, if an estimation of the position of themobile station is still performed according to the time difference ofarrival of the PRSs, a great positioning error will be brought.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network positioningmethod and related equipments, which are used for improving the networkpositioning precision.

In order to solve the technical problem above, embodiments of thepresent invention provide the following technical solutions:

A network positioning method, including:

receiving, by a user equipment (UE), positioning signals of at leastthree positioning nodes, where the at least three positioning nodesinclude at least one auxiliary UE, where the auxiliary UE is locatedwithin an end-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE exists currently;

measuring the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes, and acquiring a measurement result which includes time differenceof receiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes by the UE; and

calculating, a current position of the UE according to the measurementresult and the valid position information of the at least threepositioning nodes.

A network positioning method, including:

acquiring, by a positioning device, a measurement result of a userequipment (UE), where the measurement result is obtained by the UE bymeasuring received positioning signals of at least three positioningnodes, where the measurement result includes time difference ofreceiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes by the UE, where the at least three positioning nodes include atleast one auxiliary UE, the auxiliary UE is located within an end-to-endcommunication range of the UE, and valid position information of theauxiliary UE exists currently; and

calculating, a current position of the UE according to the acquiredmeasurement result and the valid position information of the at leastthree positioning nodes.

A network positioning method, including:

acquiring, by a positioning device, measurement results of at leastthree positioning nodes, where the measurement results are obtained bythe at least three positioning nodes by respectively measuring apositioning signal sent by a user equipment (UE), and the measurementresults include time of respectively receiving the positioning signal ofthe UE by the at least three positioning nodes, where the at leastpositioning nodes include at least one auxiliary UE, where the auxiliaryUE is located within an end-to-end communication range of the UE, andvalid position information of the auxiliary UE exists currently; and

calculating, a current position of the UE according to the acquiredmeasurement results and the valid position information of the at leastthree positioning nodes.

A user equipment UE, including:

a receiving unit, configured to receive positioning signals of at leastthree positioning nodes, where the at least three positioning nodesinclude at least one auxiliary UE, where the auxiliary UE is locatedwithin an end-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE exists currently;

a measurement acquiring unit, configured to measure the positioningsignals of the at least three positioning nodes, and acquire ameasurement result which includes time difference of receiving thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes by the UE;and

a calculating unit, configured to calculate a current position of the UEaccording to the measurement result and the valid position informationof the at least three positioning nodes.

A positioning device, including:

an acquiring unit, configured to acquire a measurement result of a userequipment (UE), where the measurement result is obtained by the UE bymeasuring received positioning signals of at least three positioningnodes, the measurement result includes time difference of receiving thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes by the UE,the at least three positioning nodes include at least one auxiliary UE,the auxiliary UE is located within an end-to-end communication range ofthe UE, and valid position information of the auxiliary UE existscurrently; and

a calculating unit, configured to calculate a current position of the UEaccording to the measurement result acquired by the acquiring unit andthe valid position information of the at least three positioning nodes.

A positioning device, including:

an acquiring unit, configured to acquire measurement results of at leastthree positioning nodes, where the measurement results are obtained bythe at least three positioning nodes by respectively measuring apositioning signal sent by a user equipment (UE), the measurementresults include time of respectively receiving the positioning signal ofthe UE by the at least three positioning nodes, the at least positioningnodes include at least one auxiliary UE, the auxiliary UE is locatedwithin an end-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE exists currently; and

a calculating unit, configured to calculate a current position of the UEaccording to the measurement results acquired by the acquiring unit andthe valid position information of the at least three positioning nodes.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

In order to make the technical solutions in embodiments of the presentinvention or in the prior art more clear, the accompanying drawings usedin the description of embodiments of the present invention or the priorart are briefly described hereunder. Obviously, the described drawingsare merely some embodiments of present invention. For persons skilled inthe art, other drawings may be obtained based on these drawings withoutany creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of system principles of an OTDOApositioning method according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a network positioning methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a network positioning methodaccording to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a network positioning methodaccording to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow chart of a network positioning methodaccording to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a network positioning methodaccording to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flow chart of a network positioning methodaccording to still another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a positioning deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of another positioning deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention provide a network positioningmethod and related equipments.

In order to make the objectives, features, and advantages of embodimentsof the present invention more clear and understandable, the technicalsolutions in embodiments of the present invention are hereinafterdescribed clearly and completely with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, thedescribed embodiments are only a part of embodiments of the presentinvention, rather than all embodiments of the present invention. All theother embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skill in the art basedon embodiments of the present invention without any creative effortsshall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

A network positioning method provided by embodiments of the presentinvention will be described hereunder, the network positioning method inthe embodiments of the present invention adopts an end-to-end downlinkpositioning manner, where a position of a UE is calculated by the UEitself, as shown in FIG. 2, a network positioning method according toembodiments of the present invention includes:

201, a UE receives positioning signals of at least three positioningnodes;

In embodiments of the present invention, the UE receives positioningsignals of at least three positioning nodes, where the positioningsignals may be positioning reference signals, and may also besynchronization signals, and are not limited thereto. The at least threepositioning nodes include at least one auxiliary UE, where the auxiliaryUE is located within an end-to-end communication range of the UE, andvalid position information of the auxiliary UE exists currently.

The end-to-end communication (i.e. D2D) is an effective communicationmode, communications between UEs can be performed directly withoutforwarding by a base station, however, since the transmit power of thesource UE itself is limited, and reception capacity of the target UE,i.e. signal reception sensitivity, is also limited, therefore, theend-to-end communication distance is limited. In embodiments of thepresent invention, the end-to-end communication distance is called as anend-to-end communication range, i.e. effective distance of theend-to-end communication, generally, the end-to-end communication rangeis relative small, e.g., may be within 50 meters.

In embodiments of the present invention, the valid position informationrefers to the position information satisfies that: an interval between apositioning time (i.e. a time when the position information is acquired)and a current time is within a specified time range, and all positioninformation satisfies that the interval between the positioning time andthe current time exceeds the specified time range is regarded as invalidposition information, where the above time range may be a parameterconfigured by a network side. The valid position information of theabove auxiliary UE may be obtained through a GPS, or may also beobtained through a network positioning manner, which is not limitedherein.

In an application scenario, when a UE performs the positioning, the UEfirstly judges whether none of valid position information of all otherUEs within the end-to-end communication range of the UE exists, if not,then selects the other UEs of which the valid position informationexists, as an auxiliary UE set. For example, assuming that the UE inembodiments of the present invention is a UE1, UEs which can perform theend-to-end communication with the UE1 include a UE2, a UE3 and a UE4,i.e. the UE2, the UE3 and the UE4 exist within the end-to-endcommunication range of the UE1; and assuming that only the validposition information of the UE2 and the UE3 exists, then the UE1 selectsthe UE2 and the UE3 as the auxiliary UE set. If none of valid positioninformation of all other UEs within the end-to-end communication rangeof the UE exists, then this positioning procedure is ended, or othernetwork positioning manners such as the UTDOA and the OTDOA may beadopted for positioning, which will not be limited herein. Furthermore,when the auxiliary UE set of the UE exists, the UE judges whether alocal end-to-end communication range is less than a preset range, wherethe preset range is a threshold value set by a network side according torequirements for the positioning precision of a network. If the localend-to-end communication range of the UE is less than the preset range,then it is deemed that distance between an auxiliary UE in the auxiliaryUE set and the UE is less than a positioning error required by thenetwork, at this time, the UE may select an auxiliary UE from theauxiliary UE set, and take the valid position information of theselected auxiliary UE as the valid position information of the UE,where, the manner of selecting the auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UEset, for example, may be selecting an auxiliary UE of which the signalstrength is strongest from the auxiliary UE set; or, may also berandomly selecting an auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set. Certainly,when the local end-to-end communication range of the UE is less than thepreset range, the UE may also take centroids of position coordinates ofall auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary UE set, and take obtained centroidcoordinates as the valid position information of the UE, which will notbe limited herein.

In embodiments of the present invention, before performing step 201, theUE needs to send positioning signal configuration information to theauxiliary UE in the at least three positioning nodes, so that theauxiliary UE in the at least three positioning nodes sends a positioningsignal to the UE according to transmit time and a transmit formatspecified by the received positioning signal configuration information.In addition, other devices such as a base station in the at least threepositioning nodes, may send a positioning signal to the UE according todownlink positioning techniques such as the OTDOA.

202, measure the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes, and acquire a measurement result which includes time differenceof receiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes by the UE;

The UE measures the received at least three positioning signals, andobtains a measurement result, where the measurement result includes timedifference of receiving the positioning signals of the at least threepositioning nodes.

203, calculate a current position of the UE according to the measurementresult and the valid position information of the at least threepositioning nodes;

The UE calculates its own current position according to the timedifference of receiving the positioning signals of the at least threepositioning nodes and the valid position information of the at leastthree positioning nodes.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

To facilitate a better understanding of technical solutions in thepresent invention, the following takes a specific application scenariois taken and describes the network positioning method being performed bya UE for downlink positioning according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, as shown in FIG. 3, the method includes:

301, a UE1 selects UEs which can perform an end-to-end communicationwith the UE1 as a candidate set;

That is, the UEs in the candidate set are within the end-to-end range ofthe UE1.

302, the UE1 detects each of the UEs in the candidate set, and takes UEsof which valid position information already exist as an auxiliary UEset;

Embodiments of the present invention is applied to the scenario that thecandidate set includes the UE of which valid position informationalready exist, certainly, the candidate set may also do not include theUE of which valid position information already exist, then thispositioning procedure may be ended, or other network positioning mannerssuch as the UTDOA and the OTDOA, may be adopted for positioning.

303, the UE1 judges whether the end-to-end range of the UE1 is less thana preset range;

The preset range indicates requirements for the positioning precision ofa network, which is configured by the network side.

If it is less than the preset range, then step 304 is performed, if itis greater than the preset range, then step 305 is performed.

304, use position coordinates of an auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE setas a current position coordinate of the UE1;

If it is judged that the end-to-end range of the UE1 is less than thepreset range in step 303, then it means that distance between a UE,which can perform the end-to-end communication with the UE1 and is inthe auxiliary UE set, and the UE1 is less than a positioning errorrequired by the network, and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE setalready has the valid position information, hence the positioncoordinate of the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set may be taken asthe current position coordinate of the UE1 directly. Specifically, themethod for selecting the position coordinate of which auxiliary UE inthe auxiliary UE set as the current position coordinate of the UE1 maybe: selecting, from the auxiliary UE set, a position coordinate of anauxiliary UE of which the signal strength received by the UE1 as thecurrent position coordinate of the UE1; or, may also be randomlyselecting, from the auxiliary UE set, a position coordinate of anauxiliary UE as the current position coordinate of the UE1. Currently,the UE1 may also take centroids of position coordinates of all auxiliaryUEs in the auxiliary UE set, and take obtained centroid coordinates asthe current position coordinate of the UE1, which will not be limitedherein.

305, the UE1 sends positioning signal configuration information to anauxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set;

The positioning signal configuration information may be sent to theauxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set by the UE1 via a UE-UE signaling.

306, the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set sends a positioning signalaccording to the positioning signal configuration information;

After receiving the positioning signal configuration information, theauxiliary UE in the auxiliary set sends the positioning signal accordingto transmit time and a transmit format specified in the positioningsignal configuration information, so that the UE1 can open a searchwindow around a corresponding moment, search the positioning signal sentby the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set, and prepare a local sequencefor decoding according to the transmit format.

307, the UE1 measures the positioning signal from the auxiliary UE, andcalculates its own current position according to measurement result andthe valid position information of the auxiliary UE;

When positioning nodes measured by the UE1 are more than or equal tothree, the current position of the UE1 may be determined according totime difference of arrival of positioning signals of different referencepoints and the valid position information of each positioning node,where the time difference of arrival is obtained by measuring.

In embodiments of the present invention, illustrations are made based onan example where the number of auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set ismore than or equal to 3, therefore, in step 307, only the positioningsignals from the auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set need to be measured,then the current position of the UE1 itself can be determined.

In an actual application, if auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set are morethan 1 but less than 3, in step 307, the UE1 also measures a positioningsignal from a base station, and calculates its own current positionaccording to the measurement result, and valid position information ofthe base station and of the auxiliary UEs.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

A network positioning method provided by embodiments of the presentinvention will be described hereunder, the network positioning method inthe embodiments of the present invention adopts an end-to-end downlinkpositioning manner, and where a position of the UE1 is calculated by apositioning device (e.g., a positioning server or a base station), asshown in FIG. 4, a network positioning method according to embodimentsof the present invention includes:

401, a positioning device acquires a measurement result of a UE;

In embodiments of the present invention, the positioning device acquiresthe measurement result of the UE, where the measurement result isacquired by the UE by measuring received positioning signals (may bepositioning reference signals, and may also be synchronization signals)of at least three positioning nodes, and where the measurement resultincludes time difference of receiving the positioning signals of the atleast three positioning nodes by the UE, the at least three positioningnodes include at least one auxiliary UE, the auxiliary UE is locatedwithin an end-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE exists currently.

In embodiments of the present invention, the valid position informationrefers to the position information satisfies that: an interval between apositioning time (i.e. a time when the position information is acquired)and a current time is within a specified time range, and all positioninformation satisfies that the interval between the positioning time andthe current time exceeds the specified time range is regarded as invalidposition information, where the above time range may be a parameterconfigured by a network side. The valid position information of theabove auxiliary UE may be obtained through a GPS, or may also beobtained through a network positioning manner, which is not limitedherein.

In an application scenario, when performing a positioning to the UE, thepositioning device firstly judges whether none of valid positioninformation of all other UEs within the end-to-end communication rangeof the UE exists, if not, then selects the other UEs of which the validposition information exists as an auxiliary UE set of the UE. Forexample, assuming that the UE in embodiments of the present invention isa UE1, UEs which can perform the end-to-end communication with the UE1include a UE2, a UE3 and a UE4, i.e. the UE2, the UE3 and the UE4 existwithin the end-to-end communication range of the UE1; and assuming thatonly the valid position information of the UE2 and the UE3 exists, thenthe positioning device selects the UE2 and the UE3 as the auxiliary UEset of the UE1. If none of valid position information of all other UEswithin the end-to-end communication range of the UE exists, then thispositioning procedure is ended, or other network positioning mannerssuch as the UTDOA and the OTDOA may be adopted for positioning, whichwill not be limited herein. Furthermore, when the auxiliary UE forest ofthe UE exists, the positioning device judges whether the end-to-endcommunication range of the UE is less than a preset range, where thepreset range is a threshold value set by a network side according torequirements for the positioning precision of a network. If an localend-to-end communication range of the UE is less than the preset range,then it is deemed that distance between an auxiliary UE in the auxiliaryUE set of the UE and the UE is less than a positioning error required bythe network, at this time, the positioning device may select anauxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set of the UE, and take the validposition information of the selected auxiliary UE as the valid positioninformation of the UE, where, the manner of selecting the auxiliary UEfrom the auxiliary UE set of the UE, for example, may be selecting anauxiliary UE of which the signal strength is strongest from theauxiliary UE set of the UE; or, may also be randomly selecting anauxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set of the UE. Certainly, when theend-to-end communication range of the UE is less than the preset range,the positioning device may also take centroids of position coordinatesof all auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary UE set of the UE, and takeobtained centroid coordinates as the valid position information of theUE, which will not be limited herein.

In embodiments of the present invention, before performing step 401, thepositioning device also needs to send positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE and the auxiliary UE in the at least threepositioning nodes, so that the auxiliary UE in the at least threepositioning nodes sends a positioning signal to the UE according totransmit time and a transmit format specified by the receivedpositioning signal configuration information, and the UE receives thepositioning signal of the auxiliary UE according to the transmit timeand the transmit format specified by the received positioning signalconfiguration information. The positioning device may send thepositioning signal configuration information to the auxiliary UE in theat least three positioning nodes directly, and may also send thepositioning signal configuration information to the auxiliary UE in theat least three positioning nodes through the UE, which will not belimited herein.

In embodiments of the present invention, other devices, such as a basestation, in the at least three positioning nodes may send thepositioning signal to the UE according to downlink positioningtechniques such as the OTDOA.

402, calculate a current position of the UE according to the measurementresult and the valid position information of the at least threepositioning nodes.

The positioning device calculates the current position of the UEaccording to the time difference of receiving the positioning signals ofthe at least three positioning nodes by the UE, which is included in themeasurement result acquired in step 401, and the valid positioninformation of the at least three positioning nodes.

In embodiments of the present invention, the positioning device, forexample, may be a positioning server or a base station. If thepositioning device is the positioning server, then the interactionsbetween the positioning server and the UE and the auxiliary UE may berealized based on a long term evolution positioning protocol (LPP)signaling, and the interaction between the positioning server and a basestation (e.g., an eNB) may be performed based on a LTE positioningprotocol A (i.e. LPPa) signaling; if the positioning device is the basestation, then the interactions between the base station and the UE andthe auxiliary UE may be realized based on a radio resource control (RRC)signaling.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

To facilitate a better understanding of technical solutions in thepresent invention, the following takes a specific application scenariois taken and describes the the network positioning method beingperformed by the positioning server for downlink positioning accordingto an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 5, themethod includes:

501, the positioning server selects UEs which can perform an end-to-endcommunication with the UE1 as a candidate set of the UE1;

That is, the UEs in the candidate set are within the end-to-end range ofthe UE1.

502, the positioning server detects each of the UEs in the candidate setof the UE1, and takes UEs of which valid position information alreadyexist as an auxiliary UE set of the UE1;

Embodiments of the present invention is applied to the scenario that thecandidate set includes the UE of which valid position informationalready exist, certainly, the candidate set may also do not include theUE of which valid position information already exist, then thispositioning procedure may be ended, or other network positioning mannerssuch as the UTDOA and the OTDOA, may be adopted for positioning.

503, the positioning server judges whether the end-to-end range of theUE1 is less than a preset range;

The preset range indicates requirements for the positioning precision ofa network, which is configured by the network side.

If it is less than the preset range, then step 504 is performed, if itis greater than the preset range, then step 505 is performed.

504, the positioning server uses position coordinates of an auxiliary UEin the auxiliary UE set as a current position coordinate of the UE1;

If it is judged that the end-to-end range of the UE1 is less than thepreset range in step 503, then it means that distance between a UE,which can perform the end-to-end communication with the UE1 and is inthe auxiliary UE set, and the UE1 is less than a positioning errorrequired by the network, and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE setalready has the valid position information, hence the positioning servermay directly take the position coordinate of the auxiliary UE in theauxiliary UE set as the current position coordinate of the UE1.Specifically, the method for selecting the position coordinate of whichauxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set as the current position coordinateof the UE1 may be: selecting, by the positioning server and from theauxiliary UE set, a position coordinate of an auxiliary UE of which thesignal strength received by the UE1 as the current position coordinateof the UE1; or, may also be randomly selecting, by the positioningserver and from the auxiliary UE set, a position coordinate of anauxiliary UE as the current position coordinate of the UE1. Currently,the UE1 may also take centroids of position coordinates of all auxiliaryUEs in the auxiliary UE set, and take obtained centroid coordinates asthe current position coordinate of the UE1, which will not be limitedherein.

505, the positioning server sends positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE1 and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set;

The positioning server may send the positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE1 and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE setdirectly, and may also send the positioning signal configurationinformation to the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set of the UE1 viathe UE1. In embodiments of the present invention, the positioning servermay transmit the positioning signal configuration information to the UE1and the auxiliary UE by adopting an LLP signaling.

506, the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set sends a positioning signalaccording to the positioning signal configuration information;

After receiving the positioning signal configuration information, theauxiliary UE in the auxiliary set sends the positioning signal accordingto the transmit time and the transmit format specified in thepositioning signal configuration information.

507, the UE1 measures the positioning signal from the auxiliary UE, andsends the measurement result to the positioning server;

The UE1 opens a search window around a corresponding moment according tothe received positioning signal configuration information, searches thepositioning signal sent by the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set, andprepares a local sequence for decoding according to the transmit format.

In embodiments of the present invention, illustrations are made based onan example where the number of auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set ismore than or equal to 3, therefore, in step 507, only need to measurepositioning signals from the auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set, andsend the measurement result to the positioning server.

In an actual application, if auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set are morethan 1 but less than 3, in step 507, the UE1 also measure a positioningsignal from a base station, and then the measurement result reported bythe UE1 to the positioning server includes the measurement resultperformed by the UE1 to the base station.

508, the positioning server calculates a current position of the UE1according to the acquired measurement result and the valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE.

In an actual application, if auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set are morethan 1 but less than 3, when calculating the current position of the UE1in step 508, the valid position information of the base station measuredby the UE1 in step 507 also needs to be combined.

Embodiments of the present invention employ a positioning server as apositioning device of the UE1, certainly, a base station (e.g., an eNB)may also be utilized as a positioning device of the UE1, for theprocedure thereof, reference may be made to descriptions in FIG. 5(replacing the positioning server with the base station), it can beunderstandable that, in the replaced solution, the base station mayadopt a RRC signaling to transmit positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE1 and the auxiliary UE.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

A network positioning method provided by embodiments of the presentinvention will be described hereunder, the network positioning method inthe embodiments of the present invention adopts an end-to-end uplinkpositioning manner, and where a position of a UE is calculated by apositioning device (which may be the UE itself), as shown in FIG. 6, anetwork positioning method according to embodiments of the presentinvention includes:

601, a positioning device acquires measurement results of at least threepositioning nodes;

In embodiments of the present invention, a positioning device acquiresmeasurement results of at least three positioning nodes, where themeasurement results are obtained by the at least three positioning nodesby respectively measuring a positioning signal (which may be apositioning reference signal, and may also be a synchronization signal)sent by a UE, and the measurement results include time of respectivelyreceiving the positioning signal of the UE by the at least threepositioning nodes, where the at least positioning node include at leastone auxiliary UE, the auxiliary UE is located within an end-to-endcommunication range of the UE, and valid position information of theauxiliary UE exists currently.

In embodiments of the present invention, the valid position informationrefers to the position information satisfies that: an interval between apositioning time (i.e. a time when the position information is acquired)and a current time is within a specified time range, and all positioninformation satisfies that the interval between the positioning time andthe current time exceeds the specified time range is regarded as invalidposition information, where the above time range may be a parameterconfigured by a network side. The valid position information of theabove auxiliary UE may be obtained through a GPS, or may also beobtained through a network positioning manner, which is not limitedherein.

In an application scenario, when performing a positioning to the UE, thepositioning device firstly judges whether none of valid positioninformation of all other UEs within the end-to-end communication rangeof the UE exists, if not, then selects the other UEs of which the validposition information exists as an auxiliary UE set of the UE. If none ofvalid position information of all other UEs within the end-to-endcommunication range of the UE exists, then this positioning procedure isended or other network positioning manners such as the UTDOA and theOTDOA is adopted for positioning, which will not be limited herein.Furthermore, when the auxiliary UE forest of the UE exists, thepositioning device judges whether the end-to-end communication range ofthe UE is less than a preset range, where the preset range is athreshold value set by a network side according to requirements for thepositioning precision of a network. If an local end-to-end communicationrange of the UE is less than the preset range, then it is deemed thatdistance between an auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set of the UE andthe UE is less than a positioning error required by the network, at thistime, the positioning device may select an auxiliary UE from theauxiliary UE set of the UE, and take the valid position information ofthe selected auxiliary UE as the valid position information of the UE,where, the manner of selecting the auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UEset of the UE, for example, may be selecting an auxiliary UE of whichthe signal strength is strongest from the auxiliary UE set of the UE;or, may also be randomly selecting an auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UEset of the UE. Certainly, when the end-to-end communication range of theUE is less than the preset range, the positioning device may also takecentroids of position coordinates of all auxiliary UEs in the auxiliaryUE set of the UE, and take obtained centroid coordinates as the validposition information of the UE, which will not be limited herein.

In embodiments of the present invention, before performing step 601, thepositioning device also needs to send positioning signal configurationinformation of the UE to the auxiliary UE in the at least threepositioning nodes, so that the auxiliary UE in the at least threepositioning nodes receives the positioning signal sent by the UEaccording to transmit time and a transmit format specified by thereceived positioning signal configuration information. After measuringthe positioning signal received from the UE, the at least threepositioning nodes estimate a time of receiving the positioning signal ofthe UE, and send measurement results including the time to thepositioning device.

In embodiments of the present invention, other devices, such as basestations, in the at least three positioning nodes may receive andestimate the positioning signal of the UE according to uplinkpositioning techniques such as the UTDOA.

602, the positioning device calculates a current position of the UEaccording to the acquired measurement results and the valid positioninformation of the at least three positioning nodes;

In embodiments of the present invention, if the at least threepositioning nodes include a serving base station of the UE and otherbase stations, then the positioning device sends the positioning signalconfiguration information of the UE to the serving base station of theUE, and the serving base station of the UE sends the positioning signalconfiguration information of the UE to other base stations via X2interfaces with other base stations; or, if the positioning device is apositioning server, then the positioning server may also send thepositioning signal configuration information of the UE to the servingbase station of the UE and other base stations directly, which will notbe limited herein.

In embodiments of the present invention, the positioning device, forexample, may be a UE, a positioning server or a base station. If thepositioning device is the UE, then the interaction between the UE and anauxiliary UE may be realized based on a UE-UE signaling, and theinteraction between the UE and the base station may be realized throughan RRC signaling; if the positioning device is the positioning server,then the interactions between the positioning server and the UE and theauxiliary UE may be realized based on an LPP signaling, and theinteraction between the positioning server and a base station (e.g., aneNB) may be performed based on an LPPa signaling; if the positioningdevice is the base station, then the interactions between the basestation and the UE and the auxiliary UE may be realized through an RRCsignaling.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

To facilitate a better understanding of technical solutions in thepresent invention, the following takes a specific application scenariois taken and describes the the network positioning method beingperformed by the positioning server for uplink positioning according toan embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 7, the methodincludes:

701, the positioning server selects UEs which can perform an end-to-endcommunication with the UE1 as a candidate set of the UE1;

That is, the UEs in the candidate set are within the end-to-end range ofthe UE1.

702, the positioning server detects each of the UEs in the candidate setof the UE1, and takes UEs of which valid position information alreadyexist as an auxiliary UE set of the UE1;

Embodiments of the present invention is applied to the scenario that thecandidate set includes the UE of which valid position informationalready exist, certainly, the candidate set may also do not include theUE of which valid position information already exist, then thispositioning procedure may be ended, or other network positioning mannerssuch as the UTDOA and the OTDOA, may be adopted for positioning.

703, the positioning server judges whether the end-to-end range of theUE1 is less than a preset range;

The preset range indicates requirements for the positioning precision ofa network, which is configured by the network side.

If it is less than the preset range, then step 704 is performed, if itis greater than the preset range, then step 705 is performed.

704, the positioning server uses position coordinates of an auxiliary UEin the auxiliary UE set as a current position coordinate of the UE1;

If it is judged that the end-to-end range of the UE1 is less than thepreset range in step 703, then it means that distance between a UE,which can perform the end-to-end communication with the UE1 and is inthe auxiliary UE set, and the UE1 is less than a positioning errorrequired by the network, and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE setalready has the valid position information, hence the positioning servermay directly take the position coordinate of the auxiliary UE in theauxiliary UE set as the current position coordinate of the UE1.Specifically, the method for selecting the position coordinate of whichauxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set as the current position coordinateof the UE1 may be: selecting, by the positioning server and from theauxiliary UE set, a position coordinate of an auxiliary UE of which thesignal strength received by the UE1 as the current position coordinateof the UE1; or, may also be randomly selecting, by the positioningserver and from the auxiliary UE set, a position coordinate of anauxiliary UE as the current position coordinate of the UE1. Currently,the UE1 may also take centroids of position coordinates of all auxiliaryUEs in the auxiliary UE set, and take obtained centroid coordinates asthe current position coordinate of the UE1, which will not be limitedherein.

705, the positioning server sends positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE1 and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set;

The positioning server may send the positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE1 and the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE setdirectly, and may also send the positioning signal configurationinformation of the UE1 to the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary UE set ofthe UE1 via the UE1. In embodiments of the present invention, thepositioning server may transmit the positioning signal configurationinformation to the UE1 and the auxiliary UE by adopting an LLPsignaling.

706, the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set receives a positioning signalsent by the UE1 according to the positioning signal configurationinformation;

After receiving the positioning signal configuration information, theauxiliary UE in the auxiliary set receives the positioning signal of theUE1 according to the transmit time and the transmit format specified inthe positioning signal configuration information.

707, the auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set measure the positioningsignal from the UE1, and sends the measurement result to the positioningserver;

The auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set opens a search window around acorresponding moment according to the received positioning signalconfiguration information of the UE1, searches the positioning signalsent by the UE1, and prepares a local sequence for decoding according tothe transmit format.

The auxiliary UE in the auxiliary set measures the positioning signalfrom the UE1, estimates a time of receiving the positioning signal ofthe UE1, and sends measurement result including the time to thepositioning server.

708, the positioning server calculates a current position of the UE1according to the acquired measurement results and the valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE.

In embodiments of the present invention, illustrations are made based onan example where the number of auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary set ismore than or equal to 3, in an actual application, if auxiliary UEs inthe auxiliary set are more than 1 but less than 3, then a serving basestation of the UE1 and other base stations are required to participatein the positioning of the UE1 so as to ensure positioning nodes are noless than 3.

Embodiments of the present invention employ a positioning server as thepositioning device, certainly, a base station or the UE1 itself may alsobe utilized as a positioning device, for the procedure thereof,reference may be made to descriptions in FIG. 5 (replacing thepositioning server with the base station or the UE1), it can beunderstood that, if the base station acts as the positioning device inthe replaced solution, then the base station may adopt an RRC signalingto transmit the positioning signal configuration information of the UE1to the auxiliary UEs, and transmit the positioning signal configurationinformation of the UE1 to other base stations via X2 interfaces (in anscenario that other base stations need to participate in positioning);if the UE1 acts as the positioning device in the replaced solution, thenthe UE1 may adopt a UE-UE signaling to transmit the positioning signalconfiguration information of the UE1 to the auxiliary UEs, and transmitthe positioning signal configuration information of the UE1 to a servingbase station via a RRC signaling (in an scenario that the serving basestation needs to participate in positioning), or transmit thepositioning signal configuration information of the UE1 to other basestations via X2 interfaces which connect a serving base station withother base stations (in an scenario that other base stations need toparticipate in positioning).

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

The following describes a user equipment according to embodiments of thepresent invention, as shown in FIG. 8, a user equipment 800 inembodiments of the present invention includes:

a receiving unit 801, configured to receive positioning signals of atleast three positioning nodes, where the at least three positioningnodes include at least one auxiliary UE, wherein the auxiliary UE islocated within an end-to-end communication range of the user equipment800, and valid position information of the auxiliary UE existscurrently;

a measurement acquiring unit 802, configured to measure the positioningsignals of the at least three positioning nodes received by thereceiving unit 801, and acquire a measurement result which includes timedifference of receiving the positioning signals of the at least threepositioning nodes by the user equipment 800;

a calculating unit 803, configured to calculate a current position ofthe user equipment 800 according to the measurement result acquired bythe measurement acquiring unit 802 and the valid position information ofthe at least three positioning nodes.

In an application scenario, the user equipment 800 further includes: afirst judging unit and a selecting unit; where the first judging unit isconfigured to judge whether none of valid position information of allother UEs within the end-to-end communication range of the userequipment 800 exists; the selecting unit is configured to, when thejudging result of the first judging unit is not, select the other UEs ofwhich the valid position information exists as an auxiliary UE set.Furthermore, the user equipment 800 further includes: a second judgingunit and a select positioning unit; where the second judging unit isconfigured to judge whether the local end-to-end communication range ofthe user equipment 800 is less than a preset range after the selectingunit is triggered, and the select positioning unit is configured to,when the judging result of the second judging unit is yes, select anauxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set, take the valid positioninformation of the selected auxiliary UE as the valid positioninformation of the user equipment 800; or the select positioning unitmay also, when the judging result of the second judging unit is yes,take centroids of position coordinates of all auxiliary UEs in theauxiliary UE set, and take the obtained centroid coordinates as thevalid position information of the user equipment 800, which will not belimited herein. The receiving unit 801, the measurement acquiring unit802 and the calculating unit 803 are triggered only when the judgingresult of the second judging unit is not.

In another application scenario, the user equipment 800 further includesa sending unit, configured to send positioning signal configurationinformation to the auxiliary UE in the at least three positioning nodesbefore the receiving unit 801 receives the positioning signals of the atleast three positioning nodes, so that the auxiliary UE in the at leastthree positioning nodes sends a positioning signal to the user equipment800 according to transmit time and a transmit format specified by thepositioning signal configuration information.

It should be noted that, like the UE in the method embodiments above,the user equipment 800 in embodiments of the present invention may beused for implementing all technical solutions in the method embodimentsdescribed above, where functions of each of the functional modulesthereof may be specifically implemented according to a method in themethod embodiments described above, for details of the implementationprocedure, reference may be made to relevant descriptions in the abovemethod embodiments, which will not be limited herein.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

The following describes a positioning device according to embodiments ofthe present invention, as shown in FIG. 9, a positioning device 900 inembodiments of the present invention includes:

an acquiring unit 901, configured to acquire a measurement result of aUE, where the measurement result is obtained by the UE by measuringreceived positioning signals of at least three positioning nodes, themeasurement result comprises time difference of receiving thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes by the UE,the at least three positioning nodes include at least one auxiliary UE,the auxiliary UE is located within an end-to-end communication range ofthe UE, and valid position information of the auxiliary UE existscurrently;

a calculating unit 902, configured to calculate a current position ofthe UE according to the measurement result acquired by the acquiringunit 901 and the valid position information of the at least threepositioning nodes.

In an application scenario, the positioning device further includes: afirst judging unit and a selecting unit, where, the first judging unitis configured to judge whether none of valid position information of allother UEs within the end-to-end communication range of the UE exists,and the selecting unit is configured to when the judging result of thefirst judging unit is not, select the other UEs of which the validposition information exists as an auxiliary UE set. Furthermore, thepositioning device 900 further includes: a second judging unit and aselect positioning unit; where the second judging unit is configured tojudge whether the end-to-end communication range of the UE is less thana preset range after the selecting unit is triggered, and the selectpositioning unit is configured to, when the judging result of the secondjudging unit is yes, select an auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set,and take the valid position information of the selected auxiliary UE asthe valid position information of the UE; or, the select positioningunit may also be configured to, when the judging result of the secondjudging unit is yes, take centroids of position coordinates of allauxiliary UEs in the auxiliary UE set, and take the obtained centroidcoordinates as the valid position information of the UE, which will notbe limited herein. The acquiring unit 901 and the calculating unit 902are triggered only when the judging result of the second judging unit isnot.

In another application scenario, the positioning device 900 furtherincludes a sending unit, configured to send positioning signalconfiguration information to the UE and the auxiliary UE in the at leastthree positioning nodes before the acquiring unit 901 acquires themeasurement result of the UE, so that the auxiliary UE in the at leastthree positioning nodes sends a positioning signal to the UE accordingto transmit time and a transmit format specified according to thepositioning signal configuration information.

The positioning device 900 in embodiments of the present invention maybe a positioning server, and may also be a base station, which will notbe limited herein.

It should be noted that, like the positioning device in the methodembodiments of FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 above, the positioning device 900 inembodiments of the present invention may be used for implementing alltechnical solutions in the method embodiments described above, wherefunctions of each of the functional modules thereof may be specificallyimplemented according to a method in the method embodiments describedabove, for details of the implementation procedure, reference may bemade to relevant descriptions in the above method embodiments, whichwill not be limited herein.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

The following describes another positioning device according toembodiments of the present invention, please refer to FIG. 10, apositioning device 1000 in embodiments of the present inventionincludes:

an acquiring unit 1001, configured to acquire measurement results of atleast three positioning nodes, where the measurement results areobtained by the at least three positioning nodes by respectivelymeasuring a positioning signal sent by a UE, and the measurement resultsinclude time of respectively receiving the positioning signal of the UEby the at least three positioning nodes, the at least positioning nodesinclude at least one auxiliary UE, the auxiliary UE is located within anend-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid position informationof the auxiliary UE exists currently; and

a calculating unit 1002, configured to calculate a current position ofthe UE according to the measurement results acquired by the acquiringunit 1001 and the valid position information of the at least threepositioning nodes.

In an application scenario, the positioning device 1000 further includesa first judging unit and a selecting unit, where, the first judging unitis configured to judge whether none of valid position information of allother UEs within the end-to-end communication range of the UE exists;and, and the selecting unit is configured to, when the judging result ofthe first judging unit is not, select the other UEs of which the validposition information exists as an auxiliary UE set. Furthermore, thepositioning device 1000 further includes: a second judging unit and aselect positioning unit; where the second judging unit is configured tojudge whether the end-to-end communication range of the UE is less thana preset range after the selecting unit is triggered, and the selectpositioning unit is configured to, when the judging result of the secondjudging unit is yes, select an auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set,take the valid position information of the selected auxiliary UE as thevalid position information of the UE; or, the select positioning unitmay also be configured to, when the judging result of the second judgingunit is yes, take centroids of position coordinates of all auxiliary UEsin the auxiliary UE set, and take the obtained centroid coordinates asthe valid position information of the UE, which will not be limitedherein. The acquiring unit 1001 and the calculating unit 1002 aretriggered only when the judging result of the second judging unit isnot.

In another application scenario, the positioning device 1000 furtherincludes a sending unit, configured to send positioning signalconfiguration information of the UE to the auxiliary UE in the at leastthree positioning nodes after the acquiring unit 1001 acquires themeasurement results of the at least three positioning nodes, so that theauxiliary UE in the at least three positioning nodes receives apositioning signal sent by the UE according to transmit time and atransmit format specified according to the positioning signalconfiguration information.

The positioning device 1000 in embodiments of the present invention maybe a UE, or a positioning server, and may also be a base station, whichwill not be limited herein.

It should be noted that, like the positioning device in the methodembodiments of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 above, the positioning device 1000 inembodiments of the present invention may be used for implementing alltechnical solutions in the method embodiments above, where functions ofeach of the functional modules thereof may be specifically implementedaccording to a method in the method embodiments described above, fordetails of the implementation procedure, reference may be made torelevant descriptions in the above embodiments, which will not belimited herein.

As can be seen from the above, in embodiments of the present invention,other UEs within an end-to-end communication range of a UE and of whichthe valid position information exists are taken as auxiliary UEs of theUE for positioning, since the distance between UEs within the end-to-endrange is relative short, thus a positioning error due to multiplereflections, refractions and attenuations of a signal caused byobstructions from buildings can be avoided, thereby improving thenetwork positioning precision efficiently.

Persons skilled in the art may clearly know that, for the purpose ofconvenient and brief description, for a detailed working process of theapparatus and units described foregoing, reference may be made tocorresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, which willnot be repeated herein.

In several embodiments provided by the present application, it should beunderstood that the disclosed apparatus and methods may be implementedin other modes. For example, the described device embodiments are merelyschematic. For example, the unit division is merely logical functiondivision and may be other division in actual implementations. Forexample, a plurality of units or components may be combined orintegrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or maynot be performed. In addition, the displayed or discussed couplings ordirect couplings or communication connections may be implemented throughsome interfaces. The indirect couplings or communication connectionsbetween the apparatuses or units may be implemented in electronic,mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separating parts may be or may not be physicallyseparated, and parts displayed as units may be or may not be physicalunits, i.e. may be located in one place or may be distributed on aplurality of network units. A part of or all of the units may beselected according to actual needs so as to realize the purpose of thetechnical solutions of embodiments of the present invention.

In addition, functional units in embodiments of the present inventionmay be integrated into one processing unit, or each of the units mayexist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into oneunit. The integrated unit may be implemented through hardware, or mayalso be implemented in a form of hardware plus a software functionalmodule.

If the integrated unit is realized in the form of software function unitand is for sale or used as an independent product, it may be stored in acomputer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, theessence of the technical solutions of the present invention, or theparts which contribute to the prior art, or a part of or all of thetechnical solutions, may be embodied in the form of a software product.The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, whichincludes some instructions for enabling a computer device (may be apersonal computer, a server, or a network equipment, etc.) to performall or a part of the steps of the method as described in each embodimentof the present invention. The above-mentioned storage medium includesvarious media which can store program codes such as a U-disk, a mobilehard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), adisk, and a CD.

The above describes in details about a network positioning method andrelated devices provided by the present invention, as for persons ofordinary skill in the art, according to the concept of embodiments ofthe present invention, there will be modifications to both the specificimplementation method and the application scope. In conclusion, contentsof the present description shall not be interpreted as a limitation tothe present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A network positioning method, comprising:receiving, by a user equipment (UE), positioning signals of at leastthree positioning nodes, wherein the at least three positioning nodescomprise at least one auxiliary UE, wherein the auxiliary UE is locatedwithin an end-to-end communication range of the UE, and valid positioninformation of the auxiliary UE exists currently; measuring thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes, andacquiring a measurement result which comprises time difference ofreceiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes by the UE; and calculating a current position of the UE accordingto the measurement result and the valid position information of the atleast three positioning nodes.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein, before the receiving the positioning signals of the at leastthree positioning nodes, the method also comprises: judging whether noneof valid position information of all other UEs within the end-to-endcommunication range of the UE exists, if valid position information ofsome UEs of all the other UEs exists, selecting the other UEs of whichthe valid position information exists as an auxiliary UE set.
 3. Themethod according to claim 2, wherein, after the selecting the other UEsof which the valid position information exists as the auxiliary UE set,the method also comprises: judging, by the UE, whether the localend-to-end communication range is narrower than a preset range, if thelocal end-to-end communication range is narrower than a preset range,selecting an auxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set, taking the validposition information of the selected auxiliary UE as the valid positioninformation of the UE; and/or, if the local end-to-end communicationrange is not narrower than a preset range, performing the procedure ofreceiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes, measuring the positioning signals of the at least threepositioning nodes, and calculating the current position of the UEaccording to the measurement results and the valid position informationof the at least three positioning nodes.
 4. The method according toclaim 2, wherein, after the selecting the other UEs of which the validposition information exists as the auxiliary UE set, the method alsocomprises: judging, by the UE, whether the local end-to-endcommunication range is narrower than a preset range, if the localend-to-end communication range is narrower than a preset range, takingcentroid of position coordinates of all auxiliary UEs in the auxiliaryUE set, and taking the obtained centroid coordinate as the validposition information of the UE; if the local end-to-end communicationrange is not narrower than a preset range, performing the procedure ofreceiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes, measuring the positioning signals of the at least threepositioning nodes, and calculating the current position of the UEaccording to the measurement results and the valid position informationof the at least three positioning nodes.
 5. The method according toclaim 1, wherein, if performing the receiving the positioning signals ofthe at least three positioning nodes, before the receiving thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes, the methodalso comprises: sending positioning signal configuration information tothe auxiliary UE in the at least three positioning nodes, so that theauxiliary UE in the at least three positioning nodes sends a positioningsignal to the UE according to transmit time and a transmit formatspecified according to the positioning signal configuration information.6. A user equipment (UE), comprising: a receiver, configured to receivepositioning signals of at least three positioning nodes, wherein the atleast three positioning nodes comprise at least one auxiliary UE,wherein the auxiliary UE is located within an end-to-end communicationrange of the UE, and valid position information of the auxiliary UEexists currently; a processor, configured to measure the positioningsignals of the at least three positioning nodes, and acquire ameasurement result which comprises time difference of receiving thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes by the UE;and to calculate a current position of the UE according to themeasurement result and the valid position information of the at leastthree positioning nodes.
 7. The UE according to claim 6, wherein, theprocessor is also configured to judge whether none of valid positioninformation of all other UEs within the end-to-end communication rangeof the UE exists; and if valid position information of some UEs of allthe other UEs exists, to select the other UEs of which the validposition information exists as an auxiliary UE set.
 8. The UE accordingto claim 7, wherein, after the selecting the other UEs of which thevalid position information exists as the auxiliary UE set, the processoris also configured to judge whether the local end-to-end communicationrange is narrower than a preset range, if the local end-to-endcommunication range is narrower than a preset range, to select anauxiliary UE from the auxiliary UE set, taking the valid positioninformation of the selected auxiliary UE as the valid positioninformation of the UE; and/or if the local end-to-end communicationrange is not narrower than a preset range, to perform the procedure ofreceiving the positioning signals of the at least three positioningnodes, to measure the positioning signals of the at least threepositioning nodes, and to calculate the current position of the UEaccording to the measurement results and the valid position informationof the at least three positioning nodes.
 9. The UE according to claim 7,wherein, after the selecting the other UEs of which the valid positioninformation exists as the auxiliary UE set, the processor is alsoconfigured to judge whether the local end-to-end communication range isnarrower than a preset range, if the local end-to-end communicationrange is narrower than a preset range, to take centroid of positioncoordinates of all auxiliary UEs in the auxiliary UE set, and to takethe obtained centroid coordinate as the valid position information ofthe UE; and/or if the local end-to-end communication range is notnarrower than a preset range, to perform the procedure of receiving thepositioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes, to measurethe positioning signals of the at least three positioning nodes, and tocalculate the current position of the UE according to the measurementresults and the valid position information of the at least threepositioning nodes.
 10. The UE according to claim 6, wherein, the UEfurther comprises: a sender, configured to send positioning signalconfiguration information to the auxiliary UE in the at least threepositioning nodes before the receiver receives the positioning signalsof the at least three positioning nodes, so that the auxiliary UE in theat least three positioning nodes sends a positioning signal to the UEaccording to transmit time and a transmit format specified according tothe positioning signal configuration information.